All you dog-lovers beware, there are dog-haters out there!

I usually try to refrain from being negative on my blog. I don't want to damage my reputation or anything ;) BUT I have had it up to here (imagine my hand drawing a line a foot above my head) with strangers getting in my business about my pooch!

Everyday in my neighborhood park someone has to come up and tell me what I'm doing wrong, and warn me that my dog is going to get big and out of control. I always try to remain polite and let them know he is just excited, and that he is in behavior lessons, and yes I have watched Cesar Millan's The Dog Whisperer before, and Yes, I work with him everyday on learning new skills, and Yes, I work on socializing him (in fact he has a whole crew of puppy friends). Everyone wants to tell me how to raise my dog. Yesterday someone went almost on an entire walk with me and Garb trying to convince me that I should let him run off leash while he is young. While, I would like Garbanzo to learn to go on walks off leash, I don't think he is ready for that, especially in an unfenced area!!!

So, today I decided to take Garbanzo to a different neighborhood for a walk. A neighborhood with a bit more shade, and less of the usual know-it-alls I run into in my neighborhood. The walk started out nicely, but the further we got from the car the more Garbanzo wanted to turn around. Our trainer has told us this is normal behavior for a puppy. He says puppies get anxious when they leave a safe area, and it is common for them to plop down and refuse to move. So after 15 mins of trying to convince Garb to go farther I decided to turn around because I was losing my patience.

Garb-a-licious was very excited to turn around, and was prancing along having a lovely time. We passed many houses with shaded grassy yards, all of which Garbanzo felt the need to roll around on. So when we got to a particular house with just such a yard (and no exterior fence), Garbanzo got on his back and rolled around a bit, he looked so happy. I usually let him roll for a second or two and then call him to come. Sometimes he comes, sometimes he doesn't. At this particular house I was just about to call Garbanzo to come when I heard a rapid knocking on the window. I look up to see an angry, grandma-looking lady yelling at me from the inside. I waved and proceeded to pick Garbanzo up to physically remove him from the yard. As I did this a grumpy, grandpa-looking man steps out the front door to see that I leave and don't cause any more trouble. As I get to the next house (only a few feet away) I can hear that the grandma was now outside. I turn around to look and she is pointing out every spot of the yard to her husband where "that dog" had been. She was purposely speaking loud enough for me to hear. I was furious. I was thinking, "look lady, he's just a puppy, he didn't poo or pee on your lawn. He didn't dig. He didn't even eat a strand of grass." He was there for maybe 30 seconds. About five minutes later I reached our car. I decided to drive by the house just to get a good look at which house it is. When I drove by the grandma was still out there looking through the grass trying to find any spot where Garbanzo might have peed or pooed. For heaven's sake lady! Calm the hell down! She obviously is a dog-hater (and possibly a people-hater), and has way too much time on her hands.

I don't know why that particular incident made me so mad out of all the others, but I feel so angry. I can totally understand how annoying it must be when a dog uses the bathroom on your lawn and the dog-owner doesn't clean it up, but I always clean up after my dog. I carry bags with me. Plus, Garbanzo didn't do a damn thing to her lawn. If she really doesn't want dogs, cats, people, or whatever to go on her lawn she should really invest in a fence. I feel vindictive. I want to go yell at the lady. I wish I had. I want to take Garby there to poo on her lawn every damn day for the rest of her life!

Ok, I feel better now. I'm not usually so vengeful. I'm just sick and tired of strangers telling me how to care for my Garby, and to be wrongfully accused by this grandma-dog-hater put me over the top!

Seriously, how can you hate on this little fella'!?!